Update Time.... ---WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST---
Took me the whole day but I set up the aquarium by adding a black background, washing out the tank, rinsing all the substrate and hard scape, setting up the equipment, and then planting (approx. 8~9 hours).
Here's the mess I created in the stand. I'm going to try to make it look neat later this week... We'll be using the rest of the Flourish Comprehensive and Leaf Zone before I start implementing PPS-Pro dosing with GLA dry ferts (macro/micros).
Here's the DHG (Eleocharis parvula) I managed to pull out of my 12g without disturbing too much of my carpet. I separated them in small clumps to replant (thanks to CorallineAlgae and Rivercats for some advice on that
here)
I managed to pull some Flame Moss off my 6g GLA tank and tied that too the Manzanita branch along with some Anubias petite and nana....
I started with a thin layer of Floramax and strategically placed Flourish root tabs throughout the substrate. That lava rock holding on to my Manzanita will be buried.
Mission accomplished... buried with some nice sloping action implemented
Bird's eye view... As you can see, where the lava rock was, there's a nice little plateau I created with substrate. I'm going to try planting something there and hope that it will be deep enough for a plant to get rooted in.
Added in some Caribsea Super Naturals white sand and created a curved river bed of some sort...
DHG planted is small clumps.
Now fully planted.
Flooded and a bit cloudy... I added the biomagnet solution that came with the Floramax... so the cloudiness should subside in a day or two. As you can see the fixture can't be seen from the front (which IMO, is not a good or bad thing).
Left angle...
Right angle...
Semi-top angle view...
Not sure how "dutch" this is going to be once grown in... but since I lack a bit of discipline in adhering to true dutch aquascaping, it might just be another jungle nature type aquarium...LOL